USAID And GIZ To Support Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee

Accra -June 2, 2014: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH are jointly supporting the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Ghana's Parliament in its oversight responsibilities for government expenditure.

Under a recently concluded agreement, USAID and GIZ will make available funds and technical assistance to the PAC for the implementation of capacity building activities, advisory services, public hearings, and peer learning with public accounts committees of other West African countries.

Mr. Andrew Karas, Acting USAID/Ghana Mission Director, Mr. Siegfried Leffler GIZ Country Director, and the Honorable Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Chairman of the PAC came together today to celebrate the new partnership on behalf of their institutions.

This agreement formally marks the beginning of a collaborative relationship among the PAC, USAID and GIZ to deepen Ghana's practice of democracy, enhance public accountability, and institutionalize a national culture for accountable and responsive development.

USAID's governance development focus acknowledges Ghana's vibrant democracy and thus has collaborated with Ghana's Parliament since 1997. In addition to providing support for strengthened democratic governance, USAID works in support of Ghana's efforts to promote sustainable and broadly shared economic growth, equitable improvements in health status and improved reading performance in primary school.

In Ghana, GIZ has been supporting improvements to the Ghanaian public finance system since 2003 for a more transparent, rules-based and effective tax and budget system as well as enhanced transparency regarding revenues from the extractive industries. Besides the support to the public finance system, GIZ is supporting partners in Ghana in the areas of agriculture, decentralization, sustainable economic development, health, renewable energy and peace and security.

GIZ is a federally-owned enterprise operating worldwide in the area of international cooperation for sustainable development. The organization works on behalf of the German Federal Government as well as other public and private, national and international clients. Most of its work is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Relatedly, USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.